OKC's most surprising developments? Future of Shepard Mall? Your questions answered

The Oklahoman’s Steve Lackmeyer fielded reader questions Friday during his weekly OKC Central Live Chat. You can join Steve most Fridays at 10 a.m. to add your comments and questions about downtown development. His next chat, at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 24, will feature Mayor David Holt as his guest.

To be able to ask questions and interact with Steve or special guests, you must have a digital subscription to The Oklahoman and you must be logged in.

Below is an edited transcript of Friday’s discussion:

Scissortail Park, OKANA most surprising, notable developments in past 10 years

Q: Steve, thanks for hosting these chats. I believe it was in 2012 when you wrote a series of stories about how Oklahoma City reached the point it had at the time, in the global spotlight with the Thunder making the NBA Finals. What has surprised you the most or what events do you consider the most notable related to where our city is today since you wrote that series of articles over a decade ago? Did you foresee Oklahoma City where it is today from your perspective of a decade ago? Mayor Holt’s perspective next week would be interesting as well.  

A: I definitely saw the opportunity of expanding downtown south between Scissortail Park and Farmers Market and that's why I spent so much time writing about the problems presented with plans at the time to make the boulevard an elevated expressway through Walker Avenue (thank goodness that didn't happen).

I fell short envisioning the success of Scissortail Park and how it could co-exist with the Myriad Gardens. I would have been stunned to see the successful transformation of First National Center. Film Row and West Village have developed far beyond what I thought would happen and that story isn't done yet.

I NEVER could have foreseen something like the OKANA resort. At best, maybe something on the line of Great Wolf Lodge along the north shore of the Oklahoma River.

I would have been disappointed to see plans evaporate for the old cotton oil mill site south of Lower Bricktown. I was widely mocked at the time for expressing a belief early on that what was being considered would make Dallas and Kansas City jealous (this was, keep in mind, a decade ago). Yeah, the haters are gonna hate, right? Looking back, maybe that response was too exuberant. But the vision was pretty amazing. Housing, retail, sports, entertainment, canal extension, river access... come on, it could have been pretty cool.

Why did Tulsa King abandon Oklahoma?

Q: What do you make of "Tulsa King" not filing to film in and around OKC for season 2? 

A: I figured this would happen when Sylvester Stallone complained about the heat last summer. Sure, they may have gotten a better deal elsewhere. But I'm convinced he couldn't hack the high temperatures.

BAM, as usual, has the story.

Help on the way to keep OKC bus stops clean

Q: Good morning, Steve. While I am excited about new EMBARK RAPID service line, I am dismayed by the astonishing lack of trash receptacles at many of the bus stops. The one that really bothers me is just north of NW Expressway and Classen under the I44 bridge. I brought this up at a public EMBARK forum a year or so ago, because the stop is located on the Deep Fork River and there is always a LOT of trash lining the fence and on the riverbank. I noted that someone (probably from the adjoining neighborhood) had put out a Rubbermaid can, out of desperation I'd guess, and the response was something like, "Yes, that's nice." We have a trash problem in Oklahoma City, well, everywhere, but I don't see EMABARK being part of the solution. 

A: Michael Scroggins, spokesman for EMBARK, may provide you with some hope that others share your concern and are working to improve our city's appearance:

"Currently, we have a dedicated team of six out each day cleaning bus shelters and collecting trash on a schedule, as well as when we receive reports of excessive trash. Only stops with shelters have trash bins. Thankfully, the MAPS 4 transit project has funding to aid approximately 500 new ADA-accessible bus shelters, including sidewalks, covered benches, trash cans and lighting."

Could senior housing add more life to Shepherd Mall?

Q: Last week either you or someone else brought up Shepherd Mall. With its sea of parking, is there a bigger waste of land in the city? 23rd street is extremely busy. A mixed use development would be beautiful here. Are you an appraiser? How much would these 40 acres cost? Thanks! 

A: I am not an appraiser but I've read plenty of appraisals in just the past few weeks. The mall sold in 2005 for $48.5 million. Crazy, right? I can't imagine it selling for that price today. And it was a shock then. The mall, according to the Oklahoma County Assessor, spans just under 700,000 square feet. I'd say overall the mall has been overseen by good owners.

Shepherd was the first enclosed mall in the city when it opened in 1964 on 160 acres originally homestead by George T. Shepherd in 1889. The mall opened at a time when retailers were beginning to close their stores downtown. The mall opened with 70 retailers including J.C. Penney and TG&Y, and a two-screen theater as anchors.

As a kid I only went to the mall a couple of times and it was a fun place to visit. It was colorful, still busy and my memory is one of eating at a Mexican restaurant with my family (El Chico maybe?) and seeing a movie.

The mall’s demise, in my opinion, started with the opening of Quail Springs Mall and it continued to thrive until the early 1980s. I believe the location could have survived if not for the 1986 abduction and murder of Kathy Sue Engle, a 41-year-old mother who was taken from the mall parking lot.

The Shepherd Twin theaters closed in 1989. TG&Y closed about the same time. Dillard's closed in 1992, followed by J.C. Penney Co. Inc. in 1997. Nearby Penn Square Mall, meanwhile, thrived as it was converted from an outdoor to an enclosed mall.

Over the past 30 years the mall has stayed open and adapted with conversion into office space. But now that model is not as great or stable as it once was, partially due to the nature of the tenants over the years being call centers and government agencies. The loss of the Social Security offices to Edmond was a big loss.

But I truly believe Shepherd Mall represents one of the best opportunities in the country for yet another evolution of an aging shopping mall.

We’ve seen elsewhere in the country where the non-anchor corridors are converted into memory center/senior living spaces designed like old-fashioned Main Street communities.

I think one of the empty anchors would make for a great senior wellness center. And then I would turn the surface parking on the west end of the mall into independent living senior housing. How’s that for a vision?

Will new May Avenue bridge be more than another standard span?

Q: At a Town Hall meeting in Ward 2 about three years ago, (Public works director) Eric Wenger told me that city planners were considering a full makeover of the May Avenue/Northwest Expressway interchange, and that was why rebuilding the bridge was taking so long. When collecting information for your recent story about the bridge, did any officials hint at what they have planned? 

A: If I were an engineer, this would be one of those challenging projects that can be fun to solve (and involving hard work too!). This is an area where the first Bus Rapid Transit will be located along Northwest Expressway. It's also an older part of the city that has held up well and is seeing a retail revival at nearby Mayfair Village.

Wenger assured the city council during a recent update that engineers are looking at how to make the area pedestrian friendly while also building what is still essentially an old-school freeway corridor. When we talk about placemaking, this is an opportunity to build something other than just another ordinary bridge. They don't have the funding to do a full-scale artistic approach as they've done with the pedestrian crossing at Northwest Expressway and Wilshire. But surely they can do something without adding much cost to it.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: What's next for Oklahoma City's Shepherd Mall? Your questions answered